I have always been struck by the beauty of
trees: majestic pecans, towering oaks and whispering pines of Texas, the blue
spruce, crab apple and maple of
Minnesota, the cottonwood and quaking aspen of Colorado.
Trees are majestic, mysterious and essential to our
existence on earth. They sprout from
tiny seeds that can be held in the hand.
They send their roots deep beneath the earth and extend their limbs to
the sky as if in prayer, transforming soil and light into substance. They bear the snow of winter and explode with
blossoms in spring. They whisper in a gentle breeze and howl when the storm whips
their branches. Their life-giving leaves
filter the air to produce the oxygen that we breathe.
They give shelter to the birds that build their nests, perch
among their leaves and sing their songs.
Forests form the homes and habitat for wildlife. For thousands of years
the trees have provided the wood with which we build our homes, fashion our
furniture, warm ourselves in winter and produce the paper to preserve our
written records. They feed both man and
beast with their nuts and fruit.
Trees remind us of those who have gone before, those who
planted them and those who lived among them. We sit in their shade in summer as
our mothers and fathers sat in an earlier day.
The oldest trees date back more than two millennia. The “Arbol
del Tul,” a Montezuma Cypress in Mexico has the widest trunk on earth and may
be 3,000 years old. Some of the olive
trees in Gethsemane are at least 900 years old and likely descended from the
very trees that shadowed Jesus when he prayed.
The “Cotton Tree” in Sierre Leone marks the place where
freed slaves gathered beneath its branches to give thanks for their freedom in
1792. “General Sherman,” the Giant
Sequoia, one of the largest trees on earth is believed to be between 2,300 and
2,700 years old. The 500 year old “Treaty Oak” in Austin, Texas was once the
sacred meeting place for Comanche and Tonkawa Indians. Stephen F. Austin met with
them beneath its branches to form the first peace treaty for his colony.
The redemptive story of the Bible begins and ends with
trees. It starts with the “Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil” in Genesis and ends with the “Tree of Life” in
Revelation. Psalm 96 proclaims, “Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of
the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for He is
coming!”
In the fullness of time God chose a tree in the form of the
Cross to accomplish our redemption. The Bible says, “Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is
written, “Cursed
is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the
blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.” (Galatians 3:13-14).
Trees remind us of God’s goodness and grace
by which he created the beauty of the earth and redeemed us for his glory.
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